Russell, Peter Nicol

Engineer and businessman Peter Nicol Russell was a force in manufacturing, importing and sales of all kinds of metal work and engineering supplies, providing components for many large projects in nineteenth-century Sydney. Although he retired to Britain, he endowed the School of Engineering at the University of Sydney, to help it produce a new generation of engineers.

Russell, George

University of Sydney

First proposed by William Wentworth in 1848 as an expansion of Sydney College, the university was established via the passage of the University of Sydney Act in 1850 and inaugurated in 1852 before moving to Camperdown in 1859. It is the oldest university in Australia.

Russell, Peter Nicol

Engineer and businessman Peter Nicol Russell was a force in manufacturing, importing and sales of all kinds of metal work and engineering supplies, providing components for many large projects in nineteenth-century Sydney. Although he retired to Britain, he endowed the School of Engineering at the University of Sydney, to help it produce a new generation of engineers.

Dunn, Mark

Mark Dunn is a professional historian working in Sydney. From 2010 to mid-2012 he was Dictionary of Sydney writer-in-residence sponsored by the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts

Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts

The Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts sponsored a writer and researcher at the Dictionary of Sydney for three years - Catherine Freyne in 2009-10 and Mark Dunn in 2010-12.

Scots

Scots have been in Sydney from earliest European contact, with Forby Sutherland, a young Scottish crew member on the Endeavour, buried at Sutherland in 1770. Scots have played important roles in all facets of Sydney's history. While the Scots can seem to be 'invisible immigrants', without a clearly distinctive culture, Scottish professions, industry, religion and education have been influential in Sydney's development since the arrival of the First Fleet.

Selfe, Norman

Engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban visionary and advocate of technical education, Norman Selfe was one of Sydney's most energetic and civic-minded citizens. His vision for Sydney included a harbour crossing decades before the Harbour Bridge was built, and an independent system of technical education long before the advent of TAFE. During his lifetime, his efforts were not successful, but many of his innovative ideas were later realised.

Sydney's first ice

Natural ice, imported from the lakes of the north-eastern United States, cooled the drinks of Sydneysiders for the first time in 1839. During the early 1850s, the trade provided relief during Sydney summers, as well as a spur to local engineers to improve ice manufacturing.

University of Sydney

Legislation to incorporate and endow the University of Sydney was passed in 1850 with the first professors arriving in 1852 followed by a cohort of 24 candidates later that year. In 2016, the university has more than 53,000 students, supported by more than 3,500 academic staff in 16 faculties, and boasts the largest university library in the southern hemisphere.